Trump Flails at Campaign Promises

Without going through a scorecard of failures delivering on campaign promises for the 2024 election, Trump has just swung and missed at what would otherwise have been ball 1, resulting in another strikeout. This time, it was his promise to significantly reduce gasoline prices to under $2/gallon. Between then and now:

• It has never even made it to 1/2-way from where it was (a little over $3/gallon) to the target,
• The lowest average price since Trump took office was the beginning of 2026 at roughly $2.75/gallon,
• Since January 1, it has continually climbed back up to about $2.92/gallon just before the end of February.

What Do We Stand For?

About 100 days into Joe Biden's presidency, he addressed a joint session of Congress. In it, he said, "America is an idea — unique in the world. We are all created equal. It’s who we are. We cannot walk away from that principle." During Reagan's presidency, he said, "America is less a place than an idea."

If we want to understand what that idea is, we need to look at the founding of the country. At the statements we immortalized in our constitution that were beyond our then-present state of being. (And arguably still beyond our state of being.)

Death of a Party

I became eligible to vote in 1973, and from the first federal election through 2016 I have voted for Republican candidates in all significant races.

But in the 2016 presidential election, I did not vote for the official Republican candidate, choosing instead to write in an alternative Republican.

I seriously considered voting for Hillary, but could not make that leap.

Serious Allegations?

Truth suffers when “serious allegations” with no evidence are a basis for inquiry.

Earlier this week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, citing serious allegations requiring investigation. McCarthy, who previously insisted that acting unilaterally to launch such an inquiry would have no legitimacy, caved in to the most vocal of the extreme right of the GOP and announced the start of the investigation without a House vote. It is unclear if he would even have sufficient support from his slim Republican majority.

No Vote? Really?

I just listened to a CBS News report on a movement underway for several eastern Oregon counties to separate from Oregon and become part of Idaho. The primary purpose given was that these eastern counties are upset that the state as a whole is rather Blue while these counties are Red and they are unable to get anything to go their way where there is a Blue/Red divide.

The report was peppered with sound bites from an interview with Mike McCarter, a man who lived in the westernmost of the eastern counties being discussed. Since he had initiated the process of querying others in his county, then in other eastern counties, it seemed that his thoughts generally captured the crux of the issues. If you just listen to the statements made, along with a few stories of others in more eastern counties, you begin to get a picture of people unrepresented in the state’s government.

The report ends with a quote from McCarter asking “Why can't people still have the right to vote for who governs them?”

Restart of My Politics Blog

 This is a new blog, but it replaces an old WordPress blog that died for lack of recent activity.

So I resurrect it here with the old name on a new platform (the same platform as my other blogs). Maybe the common home will remind me to say something a little more often.

I will fill in the old posts over time, backdated to their original posting.

And So It Begins

I do not mean to infer that there has not been a presidential race going on in the Republican party since almost immediately after the last one ended. But the official campaigns have actually begun.